bdrmm: I Don’t Know (Rock Action Records)

Arriving in 2020, Hull shoegazers bdrmm set themselves a high bar with their exceptionally strong sort of eponymously titled debut LP Bedroom. Several thousand road miles logged later, much of it in the company of new label bosses Mogwai, the quartet’s sound has gradually shifted away from the fuzzy glide guitars of old.

Emphasizing their new approach, I Don’t Know opens with Alps, a drifting cloud of electronica anchored by an oscillating and contracting rhythmic undertow. The beautiful quicksilver melodies of Be Careful shares some of the hazy 3am atmosphere of Blue Lines-era Massive Attack. Pulling Stitches’ approaching stormcloud of guitar feedback is the nearest thing here to classic shoegaze, a series of minor chords spliced with a murky lyric about “second chances”. Live standout It’s Just A Bit Of Blood opening with a sandblasting guitar and drums passage settles down into a guitar arpeggio redolent of Kid A era Radiohead before taking flight into a Spiritualized-style space rock voyage.

Suggesting an alternative future in scoring films if the outfit wished, Advertisement One builds from a ghostly piano fugue into something akin to Vangelis’s Blade Runner OST while the the slow rolling vistas of closing cut A Final Movement is similarly evocative. The shifting guitar patinas and sparing synth patina of Hidden Cinema showcases the quartet’s dynamism, with the gossamer vocal melody and delicious chord changes of We Fall Apart supplying the album’s highlight. Less immediate than the poppier moments of their debut (cf. A Reason To Celebrate, Happy), I Don’t Know gradually reveals itself as a slowburning triumph that equals its vaunted predecessor. 4/5